The best SouthWest Edgecombe boys basketball team in years invaded Viking Gym Tuesday night.

Unfortunately for the Cougars, the Kinston Vikings were their normal selves, slicing and dicing the much improved visitors 75-49 in an Eastern Plains 2A Conference contest.

“We were very efficient and we beat a pretty good basketball team,” Kinston coach Perry Tyndall said. “They have a new coach (Anthony Burns) and he’s obviously doing a good job. They’re a much tougher out than they used to be.”

The Cougars (4-3, 0-2) have already won more games than they did all of last year, a season in which they also lost at home to Kinston by 55 points, 88-33.

And while certainly better, this year’s SWE squad found out that it still isn’t quite ready for prime time.

Kinston (7-0, 2-0) overwhelmed the Cougars from the start, building a 22-8 lead after one quarter and never looking back.

“We did some nice things early, but we still have a lot to improve on,” Tyndall said. “We were unselfish and that led to some excitement, but there were also stretches where we were much too sluggish on both ends of the court.”

One player who wasn’t sluggish and created much of the excitement was senior Denzel Keyes, whom followed up a 30-point outburst Friday at Wilson Beddingfield with 27 more against SWE.

Keyes was a major beneficiary of Josh Dawson’s game-high 11 assists, slamming home four dunks off of precision alley-oop passes from point guard Dawson.

Keyes also drilled a pair of 3-pointers and connected on 12 of 14 from the field. At one point he made nine shots in a row.

“Denzel is shooting the ball really well right now,” Tyndall said. “He’s being more aggressive offensively and looking to score. He’s also gotten a lot of great looks and easy buckets because we’ve been so unselfish as a team.”

Brandon Ingram added 14 points for Kinston and was the only other Vikings player in double figures although 10 reached the scoring column.

Kinston doesn’t have a lot of time to reflect on the victory as it must travel to Vanceboro today to face 3A power West Craven. The Eagles gave Kinston its toughest test so far this season, falling 74-72 back on Dec. 7.

KINSTON 60, SW EDGECOMBE 26

The winless Cougars (0-7, 0-2) didn’t put up much of a fight as expected against the talented Vikings, who had seven players score at least six points.

Kinston’s only anxious moments came in the second quarter when the Cougars closed a 12-point deficit to 19-14 with 1:51 left before halftime.

The Vikings (7-1, 2-0) responded by scoring the final six points of the half and then the first nine of the third quarter to blow the game open.